Austin Long, 12, was injured in an altercation with other students after school on Monday, June 10. His mother took this picture and wants the community to know that her son, and his twin brother are both being victimized by bullies. School officials says they try to address problems like this.

SOMERSWORTH — A Somersworth mother is pleading for help to stop her 12-year-old sons from being bullied.

Lisa Long claims her twin boys, Austin and Cole, have been bullied every day for the last three months in their own neighborhood on Memorial Drive, which is less than a block away from the Somersworth Middle School where they are students. Long contacted Foster's Daily Democrat because she said the school and police have not yet been successful in stopping the attacks and she is desperate to protect her children.

“It's not stopping and I don't know where to turn,” Long said Thursday, explaining that she had initially been reluctant to put her boys in the public eye. But, continued attacks prompted her to come forward.

Long said she has been trying to get the police involved in protecting her sons since “Day 1,” back in March. A number of reports have been filed with police, but the attacks continue. Long said the only person who has helped her thus far is Somersworth Police Sgt. Michael Dumont. She said he took her complaints seriously.

Long also said her daughter, Jordan, was a victim of sexual harassment from a student two years ago when she was 11 years old.

This past Monday, June 10, one of the twins suffered injuries after trying to defend himself in an altercation that broke out after school. Austin suffered a bloody nose in the attack and Long photographed him as soon as she saw the injury.

The very next day, the twins were physically abused again. Their sister, Jordan, was at the scene on Memorial Drive pleading for someone to help break up the feud.

Somersworth Middle School Resource Officer Rick Campbell would not go into specifics about the report he filed from the incidents, but says the Long boys are “good kids.”

The adolescents are additionally being taunted and threatened on their front yard and at public parks.

“I have to make sure they're safe even when they want to walk to Cumberland Farms to get a Slurpie,” Long said.

Principal Dana Hilliard ensures the school's core values are safety, respect, responsibility and cooperation, and if those expectations aren't met a consequence will be given.

Legally, Hilliard said, he can't comment on behavioral issues with students at the school, but, he did say this: “I will say that safety and a top level education experience here at Somersworth Middle School is what we abide by.”

The school uses a code of conduct called Bully-Prevention in Positive Behavior Support (BP-PBS) that strives to extinguish bullying through expectations of positive behavior, intervention and support.

According to the BP-PBS curriculum, bullying has reached epidemic proportions in American schools. The National School Safety Center (NSSC) called bullying the most enduring and underrated problem in U.S. schools and in a national survey, nearly 30 percent of students surveyed reported being involved in bullying.

Somersworth is not the only place where bullying occurs, but authorities are trying to combat it. Last month, police were called to Union Street after receiving a report of a juvenile altercation involving a student who had been stabbed on his way home from school. The injuries to the student were not life-threatening and there were unconfirmed reports the weapon used to injure the student was brass knuckles with a knife attached.

Long believes the same kids involved in that incident last month, are the ones targeting her children.

Superintendent Jeni Mosca says when situations are brought to the school's attention they immediately address them and take appropriate action. “There are always two sides to every story,” Mosca said.

Today, Friday June 14, marks the last day of school, and Long says school bullies have been trying to drum up support to make her boys an “end-of-the-year target.” Long says Campbell has promised her nothing will happen.

She can only hope the bullying stops before she and her family are forced to move.